Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Records are meant to be re-written ! 1000 runs in a calendar year is a great
achievement in Test Cricket. Though India played its first Onedayer in 1974
– till 1983 – no Indian had scored a century, until KapilDev scripted a famous
175 not out against Zimbabwe, walking in at 17/5. From 171 of Glenn Turner – the highest in an
ODI progressed – 175 – 189 – 194 – then came the 1st double hundred
by Sachin Tendulkar and now 264 of Rohit Sharma.

Today
and for more days to come, more people would be searching about - KC Gandhi
English High School at Kalyan, in Mumbai.
History has it that this city was under attack by invading armies
including Mughals and British and that Marathas fought them hard. From web info, this school was established in
1979 – is Private un-aided. Heard of Dante’s Peak, an American thriller film
released in 1977, directed by Roger Donaldson, starring Pierce Brosnan- under the production of Universal Pictures and
Pacific Western. This is post is about Dhanawade’s peak.

Exceptional talent at School level is not entirely new. Sachin Tendulkar who climbed so many
peaks for long had the school record - an
unbeaten 326; Vinod Kambli’s 349 and their 664 partnership in Feb 1988. 18 years later in Nov 2006 – Kambli,
Sachin record was broken when St. Peters High School made 721 without loss in
40 overs against St. Philip’s High School at Hyderabad. Openers Manoj Kumar and Mohammed Shaibaz,
both 13, hit an unbeaten 320 and 324 respectively in the Hyderabad Cricket
Association Inter-School Under-13 tournament.
In 2011, another youngster came to limelight… it was Maharashtra’s middle order leftie –
Vijay Hari Zol who was later signed up by RCB too.

In an U19 match for Maharashtra, Zol scored
an unbeaten 451 off 467 deliveries. Prithvi
Shaw, a 14-year-old from Mumbai, smashed 546 runs – in a Harris Shield match at the Azad Maidan in
Mumbai. S. Sankruth Sriram struck a
brilliant unbeaten 486 in the Nilgiris District Cricket Association (NDCA)
under-16 inter-school cricket tournament. Still Dhanawade is very special .. What was written in DNA and Indian Express this morning itself
is worthy of a big post – more got added during the course of the day. It is all about the son of auto-rickshaw
driver in Kalyan, PranavDhanawade of KC Gandhi English High School,
overhauling Mumbaikar Prithvi Shaw's record but every other batting record in
minor record.

When
15-year-old Pranav Dhanawade left home on Monday morning for his inter-school
cricket match on an empty stomach, he didn't imagine that he will return with
his appetite — albeit the one for runs— satiated many times over – wrote
DNA. On Monday, the 10th grade student broke all batting world
records in minor cricket. He slammed an
unbelievable 652 not out (in just 199 balls, 30x6, 78x4) against
AryaGurukul School, Kalyan on the opening day of the two-day third round match
of the U-16 HT Bhandari Trophy Inter-School Cricket Tournament, organised under
the aegis of Mumbai Cricket Association.

By
close of day, he had broken the highest individual score in an innings record
held by an English cricketer AEJ Collins of 628* for Clark's House against
North Town set in 1899. He overhauled
Mumbaikar Prithvi Shaw's record score of 546 ; the opener's sextuple hundred saw his team reach a
mammoth total of 956 for the loss of just one wicket in reply to Arya Gurukul's
first innings score of 31 all out in 20 overs. The other three digit scorers
for KC Gandhi school were Akash Singh (173) and Siddhesh Patil (100).

Reports
state that at lunch, Pranav's score was 45 and he did not expect he will go on
to add another 607 runs in the next two sessions. Pranav is quoted as saying - "When
I got the chance to bat, I was desperate to get a three digit score as I had
got out in 80s in the first two games. I had promised my coach that I will get
a century this time." He added he was motivated to break the records of
India U-19 stars Sarfaraz Khan (439 in Harris Shield 2009), ArmaanJaffer (498
in Giles Shield 2010-11 & 473 in Harris Shield 2012-13) and Mumbai U-19
opener Prithvi Shaw.

Somehow the paper wrote - Pranav isn't done yet and aims to
score 1,000 runs on the second day. He is said to be a wicket-keeper batsman. It took just 199 balls for Pranav to score
that sextuple hundred !- he smashed 78
fours and 30 sixes en route the world record at the Union Cricket Club ground.

More was to happen today as Cricket got its first 1000-run man as on January 5, 2016 – 15 year old Pranav Dhanawade
became the only batsman in the history of the game to achieve the landmark in a
single knock.The world-record knock finally ended when Pranav's team decided to
declare the innings 1465 for 3, with their star batsman still unbeaten at 1009
in just 323 balls he faced during his 395-minute stay at the crease. The runs
came at a mind-boggling strike rate of 312.38 and included 129 fours and 59
sixes.